How to Format an External Hard Drive

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How to Format an External Hard Drive – This is a place for the community to provide tips and advice on How to Format an External Hard Drive. This topic was created by Neal Alsup and the tips are provided by the community. The tips you add here can be your own or referred from another site. The best tips are then ranked at the top when up-voted by members of the community.

Tip 1 - How to Format an External Hard Drive

Published: 9 years, 4 month(s) ago | Submitted by David Sucher | permalink

Formatting a hard drive or flash drive will erase the contents and set up a file structure so that it can be accessed on your computer. You might need to format if you get a drive that isn't compatible with your computer. Follow these...
Tags: WikiHow, Format an External Hard Drive, wiki, how to articles, how to instructions, DIY, tips, howto, learn, how do I

For further reading: http://www.wikihow.com/Format-an-External-Hard-Drive ^[1]

Tip 2 - The best ways to format an external drive for Windows and Mac - CNET

Published: 9 years, 4 month(s) ago | Submitted by Walter Lorenzi | permalink

Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with Windows and Mac. And, no: the answer isn't always FAT32.

For further reading: http://www.cnet.com/how-to/the-best-ways-to-format-an-external-drive-for-windows-and-mac/ ^[2]

Tip 3 - How to format my drive for Windows only (NTFS)?

Published: 9 years, 4 month(s) ago | Submitted by Joy Anderson | permalink

Tags: SED,Storage cache,Storage software,Storage virtualization,caching software,SQL on SSD,SQL data storage,SQL server,SQL storage,Travelstar,Ultrastar,Solid State Storage,PCIe,SAS,SATA,VDI,Virtualized desktops,Virident,Velobit,Violin Memory,WD,WDC,Western Digital

For further reading: https://www.hgst.com/support/faqs/how-format-my-drive-windows-only-ntfs ^[3]

Tip 4 - How to partition and format your hard drive in Windows

Published: 9 years, 4 month(s) ago | Submitted by Christian Wind | permalink

Whether you're installing a brand-new drive or wiping an old one clean, formatting a drive is a basic maintenance task you should know how to do. Luckily, Windows 7 and 8 make this pretty easy.

For further reading: http://www.pcworld.com/article/248980/how-to-partition-and-format-your-hard-drive-in-windows.html ^[4]

Tip 5 - How to Erase and Format a Hard Drive

Published: 9 years, 4 month(s) ago | Submitted by Michael Warren | permalink

Whether you're selling your computer, trying a new operating system, or setting up an external drive for backups, sometimes you need to completely erase and format a hard drive. Here are the basic steps involved. Try a New Operating System This Weekend Try a New Operating System This Weekend Try a New Operating System This Weekend We write about a variety of platforms here at Lifehacker, and even if you're perfectly happy… Read more Read more
Tags: emailable tech support, 101, format, hard drives, external drives, flash drives, Lifehacker

For further reading: http://lifehacker.com/how-to-erase-and-format-a-hard-drive-1525128357 ^[5]

Tip 6 - How to format an external hard drive that is not visible

Published: 9 years, 4 month(s) ago | Submitted by Nico Cesar | permalink

Hi How can format WD 500GB External Hard disd drive that is not visible at my computer. The disk simply shows at the task bar, it cannot be read, the green light also shows on the disk. I need t

For further reading: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/264009-32-format-external-hard-drive-visible ^[6]